What Open Access licences are appropriate?

Licences are used to tell the reader what rights they are being given in relation to the paper/article when they access it. Different publishers offer a range of licensing agreements. Licences affect how your work can be copied, distributed, shared and how others can use it, commercially and non-commercially.

Some funders (e.g. Research Councils, Wellcome Trust) specify what licence Open Access content should be published under. If this applies to your article, we'll check whether your journal offers the right licence and advise you if you need to take any further action. Please don't select an Open Access option without first consulting the Open Access Team - you could be left holding the bill.

If the Open Access Team has approved an Open Access payment and you are funded by Research Councils (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC) or COAF (Arthritis Research UK, Bloodwise (Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research), British Heart Foundation (BHF), Cancer Research UK (CRUK), Parkinson’s UK, Wellcome Trust) then you MUST select a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.